Mongol Empire
A map dating back to 2007, a tried and true classic gameplay style map. It depicts the time of Ghenghis Khan and the expansion of the Mongol Empire across Eastern Asia in the 1200s. The map has 40 regions and 6 bonus zones. A very flexible and pretty map that works with almost any settings. It is however too small for quads and 8 player doubles. It is almost an ideal map for doubles as each player will drop 10 regions and will not easily be able to obtain a region count advantage, meaning that going first is less of an advantage. Features The trade route between Samarkand and Lhasa allows a quick east - west movement between the Ilkhanate and the Yuan Khanate bypassing the Chagadi Khanate. Bonuses Spoils Escalating This is an extremely open map. Kara Khitai accesses 7 regions, while Naimans, Yugor, Astrakhan, and Khurasan each access 6 regions. A number of other regions connect to 5 regions. No bonus zone is worth pursuing in an escalating map except perhaps Jin if you happen to drop 2 or 3 of the regions within the zone. The two main bottleneck regions on the map are Henan and Naimans. Despite there being a circuitous way around Naimans, these regions may be critical to hold in escalating games. The dead ends on the map are Crimea, which touches only Moscow, Korea and Kitan, which touch Nuzhen only, and Merkits, which touches only Bargu. The map is excellent for any number of players up to 6 when playing terminator and standard games. Fog of war works fairly well for the map due to the dead ends and the regions with a lot of reach become key. Flat rate, nuclear or no spoils Only the Jin bonus zone is usually in play at the beginning of the game. It is a deceiving bonus zone in that it looks easy to defend but because it has two entry points for just a +2 troop bonus it is not that great in a multiplayer game. Small flat rate games are exciting and action-packed, but larger flat rate games and most no spoils games have a tendency to develop into build up games, which can take a long time to finish. Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, and Yuan Khanate are the three best bonus zones to take in terms of troops for entry points, although if you take Yuan you can expect most players to attack because it is so powerful. Golden Horde or Ilkhanate are both nice long-term bonus zones as they respectively have a +5 zone bonus and only 3 borders. Nuclear spoils games work similarly to no spoils, with the important caveat that the game can turn quickly against you should you accumulate a large stack of troops on a region that gets nuked! Fog of war goes well with nuclear spoils. 1v1 Each player begins with 13 regions, meaning 14 neutrals. Your initial goal will be to conquer two regions from your opponent dropping him to 11 and increasing your total to 15. The easiest bonus zone on the map to hold is Jin, as it has only two bordering regions, Onggt and Henan. All other bonus zones are exposed to assault from multiple adjacent regions and are therefore difficult to hold, unless you can clear your opponent from one side of the map. Any type of spoils work well for the map, including nuclear spoils. Manual deployment on this map, as on most classic open maps, will usually degenerate into crashing stacks of troops fairly quickly with the first turn being critical. The map plays well with both fog of war and sunny (no fog of war) settings. Fog of war will not have much of an influence on a two player game due to the relatively small size of the map. Team games Jin and Great Khanate are the best bonus zones to take in team games, as they are relatively small and can be defended by a partner outside of the zone. Try to get one of these smaller zones early, then work on breaking any zone bonuses your opponent might have conquered, or eliminate your weakest opponent. This map is good for triples, and four and six player doubles games. Quad games and eight player doubles are a little too large for the map, as each player only starts with 5 regions. In a quad game on this map it is therefore a better strategy to target one opponent specifically and eliminate them early on. Adding fog of war to this scenario can add another dimension of excitement for gamers who are interested in more of a challenge. The usual strategy for team games on this map is to target someone for elimination. The team should consider turn order, and target an opponent before he can strengthen enough to withstand the assaults. Unlimited reinforcements are generally not recommended for team games on an open map like this as they give the first team to take a turn a big advantage. I'd recommend chained or adjacent reinforcements. Doubles games will start with each player controlling 10 regions each, triples with 6 regions each, and quads with 5 regions each.